202 Inventions, Receipts, &c. Inventions, Receipts, &c. IMPROVED CASTERS FOR BEDS, &c. VOL. I. flame, and generating heat that radiates with It has frequently been remarked that the casters at present in use for beds, sofas, &c., are on a very exceptionable principle, inas-sumption of the oxygen of the air is said to much, as the chief pressure falls, not on the be so small that a vase sufficient to warm a body of the caster, but on the shaft; hence the large room does not consume more than a shaft is soon broken, or the caster becomes rushlight would, and its expense is almost as strained and useless. The engraving here trivial, being only three pence sterling for twenty-four hours. A carriage or closet might be warmed for fifteen hours at the rate of one penny. This discovery it is said was accidentally made by a market gardener while opening a hot bed. A Such is the account which is given of this wonderful invention. The London Spectator falls into a pleasant speculation on the changes which it will effect in the world. The " Englishman's fireside," of which there is so much talk, will be abolished; stoves will be seen only in kitchens, for this new heat will not answer for culinary purposes; the iron mongers will vend no more parlor grates; the canopy of smoke will be lifted from London; the chimneys will be levelled to the roofs; London will breathe a new atmosphere and sweeps will be gone, except when they are called to sweep the kitchen flue, and the alarms which many have felt lest the supply of coals should fail will be quieted forever. given offers to the public a simple improve-wear a new aspect; the occupation of the ment in the form of this little appendage to our most useful furniture; and we think that any person connected with the upholsterer's trade will at once perceive the advantage arising from it. We may remark, that the runner A, is In reference to this invention, the London a brass ball, moving freely on an axis in the Mechanics' Magazine of Jan. 13th, 1838, same direction with the runner B, of a wheel says "Joyce's new stove is in the form of a like shape. Now the runner B, being farther tall urn, having a pipe running entirely from the centre of motion than A, and adher- || through the centre, with a cap or valve at ing more firmly to the floor, in consequence the top to regulate the draft. The urn is of of its flat surface, the improved caster will have every advantage of turning, with that|| at present in use-whilst in the article of sustaining the pressure, it must be decidedly superior. JOYCE'S NEW MODE OF HEATING. thin bronze, and about two feet high, and INCOMBUSTIBLE CLOTHING. There has lately been discovered in England, a mode of warming an apartment by placing in the midst of it a portable vase which emits neither flame nor smoke, and which will raise the temperature of the air in a room of any dimensions to the degree re- A London journal says that a solution of quired. phosphoric acid has the power of rendering The vase is called the Portable Warming linen, muslin, &c., incombustible. This has Apparatus. You may, says an English jour-been fully demonstrated at the Royal Institunal, set it on a table or take it in a carriage, tion on a late occasion, to the satisfaction of and it will warm a public hall, or a pew in a a numerous audience.-It is of importance church. What the invention consists of is that this fact should be made generally known. not yet known; nor will it be made public till Phosphoric acid may be obtained by burning patents are secured for other parts of the a piece of phosphorus in a bottle, in which it world besides England. It is some chemical will be collected in the form of a white powcombination producing combustion without||der, which is readily soluble in water. No. 12. FIRE-PROOF WOOD. Inventions, Receipts, &c. grav GLAZING EARTHENWARE. 203 M. Rochinski, a manufacturer of earthenware at Berlin, has found a varnish or glazing for common pottery, which, after trials made in the presence of the College of Medicine, offers no danger in regard to health, and resists the action of acids. This glazing is composed of five parts of litharge, two parts of well purified clay, and one part of sulphur. These substances are pulverized, and mixed with a sufficient quantity of caustic alkaline lye (soap maker's liquor,) so as to form a mixture fit to be readily applied on the earthenware, and to cover it equally ail over. Carefully baked, these wares offer no trace of lead. Dr. Fuchs, member of the Academy of Science at Munich, has discovered a composition by which he renders wood incombustible; the composition is made of granulated earth and an alkali. To obtain it, the inventor says, you must dissolve some moist elly earth, which has been previously well washed, and cleared from any heterogeneous matter, in a solution of caustic alkali. This mixture has the property of not becoming decomposed by fire or water. When spread upon wood, it forms a vitreous coat, and is proof against the two elements. The Building Committee of the Royal Theatre have twice publicly tried the efficacy of the composition on two small buildings of six or eight feet in length, and a proportionate height; the one was covered with the comThe following is said to be the method by position, and the other built in the usual man- which this sort of work is polished: a numner. The fire was put equally in the two|ber of small articles are placed in a hollow buildings; the one which was not covered cylinder, with emery, freestone, or Bath with the composition was consumed, whilst bricks, common bricks, glass, oxide of iron, the other remained perfect and entire. The &c., all ground with water, and made into a cost of this process is very insignificant com- soft paste. The cylinder, of which in a manpared to its great utility, being about two ufactory of this kind there are several, is francs three centimes per 100 square feet.-turned by machinery, and the steel articles The royal theatre at Munich has undergone this process, having about 400,000 square feet: the expense of which was about 4 or 5000 francs. CEMENT FOR IRON PIPES. For what is termed flanged joints, and all such as are not required to be taken apart, use an iron cement made of iron boring, pounded sal ammoniac and one quarter of sul phur. The exact proportion, however, can only be ascertained from practice. This composition should be wetted with water or urine, and driven into the joint with a hammer or caulking chisel; it will then be found the most durable of all joints, if well made, and will resist steam of any pressure. If the joints are required to be taken asunder frequently, this cement will not, of course, be so convenient, and in such cases a platted rope or gaskin, with some glazier's putty, or white and red lead, will answer every purpose. DURABLE PAINT FOR GATES, BARNS, &c. Melt twelve ounces of rosin; add three gallons of train oil, and three or four rolls of brimstone. When the rosin and brimstone are melted and become thin, add as much Spanish brown (or any other color you want, ground fine, as usual, with oil) as will give the whole as deep a shade as you like; then lay it on with a brush as hot and thin as you can. Some days after the first coat is dried, give it a second. POLISHING STEEL ORNAMENTS. are, in the first instance, turned round for the space of 36 hours. They are withdrawn, washed, and again turned for 24 hours more, in quite a dry state, in another hollow cylinder, with red ochre, oxide of tin (putty,) and black oxide of iron. By this process, a brilliant polish is obtained. SEALING WAX. Best red wax is made by mixing two parts of shell lac, well powdered, with resin and vermilion, each one part; melt this over a very gentle fire; when the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, work the mass into sticks. Seed lac may be substituted for shell lac, and instead of resin, boiled Venice turpentine may be used. Coarse hard red wax.-) -Mix two parts of resin, one part of shell lac, vermilion and red lead together one part, the latter in the proportion of one of vermilion to two of the red lead. For a cheaper kind, the vermilion may be omitted, and for very coarse uses, the shell lac also. Black wax is made in the same manner as red, with the exception of the coloring; the finest ivory black is used. Green wax is the same mixture of resins and gum resins as before mentioned; the coloring ingredient is powdered verdigris; for a brighter color, crystals of verdigris. Blue wax.-Use smalts; light blue verditer, or a mixture of both. Yellow wax.-Use masticott; fine bright yellow, turbith mineral. 204 Inventions, Receipts, &c. VOL. I. Purple wax.-Use half vermilion and half || them with tin filings and tartar. Hollow smalts, or red and blue in various proportions, mirrors or globes are silvered by an amalgam according to the tint required. consisting of one part by weight of bismuth, half a part of lead, the same quantity of pure tin, and two parts of mercury. The solid metals are to be first fused together, and the mercury added when the mixture is almost cold. A very gentle heat is sufficient to fuse this amalgam. In this state it is poured into a clean glass globe intended to be silvered, by means of a paper funnel which reaches to the bottom. At a certain temperature it will stick to the glass, which by a proper motion may thus be silvered completely, and the su perfluous amalgam poured out. The appearance of these toys is varied by using glass of different colors, such as yellow, blue, or green. Particular attention should be paid to the ingredients while over the fire, that no more heat be given than is sufficient for them to melt, and be incorporated. The wax is formed into sticks by rolling it on a copper plate or stone, with a rolling board lined with copper or tin. The polish is given by placing the sticks of wax over a fire in a small stove, which is provided with a suitable apparatus for placing and turning them in that situation, where the heat given to them is sufficient to melt the surface of the wax, and produce the gloss. SILVERING. There are various methods of giving a covering of silver or silvery aspect to the surface of bodies. The application of silver leaf is made in the same way as that of gold.Copper may be silvered over by rubbing it with the following powder: Two drachms of tartar, the same quantity of common salt, and half a drachm of alum, are mixed with fifteen or twenty grains of silver precipitated from nitric acid by copper. The surface of the copper becomes white when rubbed with this powder, which may afterwards be brushed off and polished with leather. The saddlers and harness makers cover their wares with tin for ordinary uses, but a cheap silvering is used for this purpose, as follows:-Half an ounce of silver that has been precipitated from aquafortis by the addition of copper, common salt, and muriate of ammonia, of each two ounces, and one drachm of corrosive muriate of mercury, triturated together, and made into a paste with water; with this, copper utensils of every kind, that have been previously boiled with tartar and alum, are rubbed, after which they are made red-hot, and then polished.The intention of this process appears to be little more than to apply the silver in a state of minute division to the clean surface of the copper, and afterwards to fix it there by fusion; and accordingly this silvering may be effected by using the argentine precipitate here mentioned, with borax or mercury, and causing it to adhere by fusion. BRONZE. Take spelter, and let it stand in spirits of wine for twenty-four hours; then pour off the solution, and let it evaporate, and boil it with three ounces, by measure, of sintum senega, for two hours; then take it off, and strain it through a fine rag, which will detain the fine powder, to be well washed with clear water, previous to using. The method of darkening the bronze is by simply adding chloride of ammonia, mixed with asphaltum; the mixture to be applied while hot, to the brass or copper. COLORING LEATHER. A beautiful leather may be obtained, by using the tincture of turmeric, formed by infusing an ounce or more of the root, powdered, in a pint of spirit of wine. This may be diluted or strengthened, so as to produce a tint from the lightest straw to the most brilliant yellow. Indian lake, infused for some days in spirits of wine, and then pouring off the tincture from the dregs, will produce a very fine crimson stain for parchment, and perhaps leather too. HINT TO BRICK MAKERS. Tanners spent-bark might be applied very usefully in the burning of bricks. It would be the means of keeping them of a light color, and in many parts of the country, the tanners would be glad to let the brick-maker have them for fetching away. FURNITURE OIL. The dial-plates of clocks, the scales of barometers, and other similar articles, are silvered by rubbing upon them a mixture of muriate of silver, sea salt, and tartar, and afterwards carefully washing off the saline matter An excellent furniture oil will be obtained with water. In this operation, the silver is by simmering together, in an earthen pipkin, precipitated from the muriatic acid, which one ounce of roach alum,and one pint of coldunites with part of the coppery surface. It drawn linseed oil, for a quarter of an hour. is not durable, but may be improved by heat- When used, it should be well rubbed off with ing the article, and repeating the operation a linen cloth, and by repeating the process you till the covering seems sufficiently thick. will in a few hours obtain a most beautiful The silvering of pins is effected by boiling" and durable potash. No. 12. Road Making on Mr. M'Adam's System. 205 Road-Making on Mr. M'Adam's System. above, is sufficient for any road. No large stones, or wood, or other substance, should I. Forming the Road. The line being be placed below the prepared materials, agreed on, the road must be formed by break-whether the bottom be soft or otherwise.ing the natural surface as little as possible, Broken stones should be laid on the road to and with no greater convexity than is abso- the above depth, at three different times, with lutely necessary to carry off the water. For light, broad-mouthed shovels, one shovel full the general purposes of country traveling, twenty-eight feet is a sufficient breadth of following another, and each scattering the stones over the surface for a considerable space. road, with a declivity of three inches from the There must not be among the broken stones centre of each side; sixteen feet in the cenany mixture of earth, or of any other matter tre should be fully metalled with solid mate- that will imbibe water, or be affected with rials, and six feet on each side may be done the frost; and nothing is to be laid over the with slighter materials; but near to great clean stones on pretence of blinding or bindtowns, there should be thirty or forty feet in breadth of actual road way, laid with solid ing. Gravel, when made use of, should be laid on the road in light coats, not exceeding materials, to the full depth. The water two inches at a time, with a proper interval courses on each side of the road should be so betwixt each coat to let the gravel settle. constructed, that the road materials may be three or four inches above the level of the water in the ditch. IV. Consolidation of the Materials.-A careful person must attend for some time after a new road is opened, to rake in the tracks made by wheels until the materials consolidate. If properly prepared and applied, they will, in a short time, unite themselves into a mass or body, like a piece of timber or a board, and will then form a smooth solid surface, which will not be affected by vicissitudes of weather, nor will the stones be displaced by the action of the wheels, which will pass over without a jolt, and consequently without injury. II. Preparing the Materials.--When stones can be obtained, they ought always to be preferred. They must be broken in small heaps, and in such a manner that the largest piece in the heap shall not exceed six ounces in weight; they will thus unite by their own angles, and form a solid and hard substance. If the stones were all broken to six ounces, they would make a rough road; therefore, that size is assumed only as the maximum, and as the best criterion and check for the V. Repairing the Road.-A road made breaker; for, if no piece of stone shall exon the above principles will require no repairs ceed six ounces, a great proportion of the till by use it gradually wears thin and weak. heap must necessarily be under that size, The amendment will then be made by an adand as this is indispensable to the smooth-dition of materials prepared and laid on as at ness of the surface of the road, it should be well attended to. The operation of breaking the stones should be performed in a sitting posture, with a small hammer of about one pound weight in the head, the face the size of a new shilling, well steeled, and with a short handle. After the stones are blocked out, the breaking may be executed by old men, and by women and children; and this should be done at the depot, and never on the road. When gravel is used for making the road, it must be sifted or riddled in the quarry till it is quite clean and free of earth, and all the large pieces must be well broken as directed for stones, and in that prepared state the gravel is brought to the road. When the earth is of a quality to adhere to the gravel, it will be advisable to leave in the pit the small or fine gravel, and to use for the road only the larger parts, which can be broken; for, while the breaking most effectually beats off the earth, the advantage is obtained of having the gravel laid on the road in that angular shape which so much favors its consolidation. III. Laying on the Materials.-A depth of ten inches of solid materials, prepared as" first. The period for which a road will last without repairs, depends on the nature of the materials of which it is composed and the use to which it is exposed. Of all road materials, whin-stone is the best and most durable; limestone consolidates sooner, but from its nature it is not so lasting; gravel is inferior to both, because its component parts are round, and want the angular points of contact by which broken stones unite.All repairs should be executed between the months of October and May, when the weather is not very dry. Before laying on the additional materials, the surface of the old road must be loosened a little with a pick axe, so as to allow the new materials to unite with the old. VI. Lifting a Road.-Where a road has been originally made on a wrong principle, the defect may in general be cured by lifting and relaying it. If the main objection consist in the undue preparation of the stones, the mode of cure is this:-Turn up the old road four inches deep with a strong pick axe, short from the handle to the point; then by means of a strong heavy rake, with a wooden head ten inches in length, and iron teeth about two inches 206 The Cork Tree. VOL. I. and a half long, gather off the stones to the side of the road, to be broken there, but on no account on the road itself, agreeable to the directions already given. All the stones which exceed six ounces being thus removed, the road must be put into shape, and the surface smoothed by the rake; and then the newly broken stones are to be replaced on the road, and consolidated, as already directed. See article 2, 3, and 4. When ten inches of clean stones are found in the old road, no new materials will be needed; and if there be a smaller quantity, as many new stones should be brought forward and laid on, as will make up that thickness. A small space of road only, as two or three yards all across, should be lifted at once, and that should be relaid before another piece is lifted. The compliment of hands usually required is five persons, two picking up and raking, and three breaking stones. Betwixt October and May is the proper season for this operation. Roads made of gravel or of soft stones, do not admit of being new modelled by lifting, neither will the above directions apply to the case of a road much out of shape, or in very great disorder. VII. Management.-So much depends upon the proper remedy being applied to each particular road, and to each part of a road, and it is a matter of such difficulty precisely to determine in every case what that remedy ought to be, that the introduction of the system thus proposed cannot, with any prospect of success, be attempted without the appointment of a general surveyor, of respectable rank and character, and of liberal education, previously instructed in the principles and practice of road-making. For every district or division of the road there must also be an active sub-surveyor appointed by the district, and regularly instructed, to act under the direction of the surveyor-general in the executive department. The laborers and carters will be under the charge of the sub-surveyors, and should all be employed by the piece. Under such a system, so managed, its intelligent author promises, at all seasons of the year, smooth and solid roads, and at an expense so much inferior to that which attends the present system, that a gradual diminution of the debt and of the toll duties may be relied on. Edinburgh, Scotland. The Cork Oak is not so large a tree as the common oak. There are several varieties: a broad and a narrow leafed, which are evergreens; beside other varieties which shed their leaves. The broad-leafed evergreen is, however, the most common, and it is the one from which the cork of commerce is chiefly obtained. It is mentioned by Theophrastus, Pliny, and some other ancient naturalists as being well known in the days of the Greeks |